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Monday, March 22, 2010

Tour Duty: Fulham (Away)

While the lads were back home in Sydney, I was at Fulham to enjoy the heart of the game. I had originally planned not to attend this game due to its ridiculous price however at the last minute I sorted out a ticket for 40 quid. After Spurs win yesterday I knew that we had to take all 3 points if we wanted to stand any chance of playing in the champion’s league next year.

Putney Bridge was the last stop on the tube and as I turned on the automatic navigation system to the ground I took in the good weather and rather nice surroundings. I didn’t really know what to expect coming to Craven Cottage but it was definitely a nice day out.

As I walked into stadium I rather enjoyed seeing the quaint surroundings. A quick walk around the corner lays the river Thames and in another corner is a lovely little Cottage still standing after all these years. I also liked the fact that the Fulham fans didn’t have to be separated by security guards from the city fans and we’re treated like humans, not animals.

Fulham were just coming off a high after a historic win over Italian giants Juventus. The game kicked off and you could tell from the start that we had finally fixed up our shape in our first half dilemma that had cursed us in recent weeks. In fairness it was quite hard to see what went on with the first goal being so far away but Santa Cruz was on hand to bury from close range and the city fans went crazy. A couple of minutes later and with some beautiful inter-play Tevez found the back of the net to put us two up and sailing quite nicely.

From my observations in the first half one player stuck to mind was Vincent Kompany. He kept Zamora at bay all day and really controlled the heart of the defense. Bellamy and Johnson on the wings also gave us that constant threat, not to forget Tevez who gave us that third dimension whilst attacking.

The second half was a bit more balanced with both teams having 50/50 percentage of the ball. On another day city could have scored 4 or 5 goals with some shots just beaming past the goal. A late penalty to Danny Murphy and that really got my nerves going. A few minutes later the whole crowd roared and my heart dropped as their striker Okaka shot which looked like a goal, however looks can be deceiving from down the other end and it went wide for a goal kick. The final whistle went and we had successfully grinded out a result.

A quick hug to the random city supporter next to me and I left to enjoyed the sun shining brightly over the Thames as I made my way back home. Once again, another perfect day supporting the mighty Manchester City FC.